Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1887-04-30
TO REFORM SPELLING.
an ABLs PAPsR .EAD SSFORs faA
CLfOsOPHio sUofsrr.
Ciosipg Meeting Of This local Literary ias,itu.
tiop. at the Residence OF ,. ". II. Bsusnsn,
Made Memorable by an Essay OF PROT.
W. o. osen, OF Lafayette College.


regular series OF meetings at the residence Of
Mr.. J. W. +. Bausmsn, West Chestnut street,
on Friday evening The chairman intro.
duced a. the esssyist of the evening, Professor
W. Is. Owen, of Lafayette college, who has
long been associated with the movement for
spelling reform. Professor Owen prefsced
his essay with q complimentary reference to
the Cliosophic society, which he had FIRE.
quently heard most highly spoken of. The
earnest aud quiet delivery OF the speaker
commanded close attention and his dry
humor greatly enIivened learned essay on
the subject OF spelling reform. An abstract
Of the same Is herewith presented.
The paper was devoted mainly to showing
the neel Of reform aud the obstacles In the
way OF the movement Most Languages In
our part OF the world are written phonetically,
or nearly So and the spelling follows changes
OF pronunciation that occur from generation to
generation. The Euglish language, how.
ever, has passed through periods of special
disturbance notably the Norman conq uest
when the orthgraphy was thrown out Of
Joint by the mixture of races that had differ.
ent ways of representing sounds. Three cen.
turtles of chaos made a return to the phonetic
habits OF the Anglo-S&xons impossible, for
the writers had forgotten that there was any
necessary connection between sound and
sign.
After the invention of printing they
simed to make the spelling uniform at
least Two or three centuries more-closing
| with Baily (lI2D, and DR.. Johnson (l755),
brought us to rigid system of spelling-s
| system In which words are mere groups of
letters without regard to the Legitimate power
OF letters to represent sounds
| Eminent scholars have tried to give the
system fitting characterization. Prof. March
calls 1t " the worst on the planet " Sir &.
L. Trevelysn, "a labyrinth, q chaos, An ao
surdity, disgrace to our age and nation"
&c. &c,
Prot Owen then exhibited IN detail few
OF the irregularities for example ; that there
are ttcsaty Rre ways of deuoting the sound
% o): twenty-five ways of denoting that
OF short twenty-five for long eighteen
for long sixteen for long o, &c.
The word face, which has but three ee
mentary sounds, may be spelled in 952 ways,
and everyone Justified by q good English
analogy. One OF the ways would be
9het9hsch, viz: gh.f in laugh, tough, enough,
&C., eigh-s in elght, leighton, g.; sch-s s(ce)
in schisTl,
The worst irregularities occur within a
small group OF words-aeout 500. but they
| are the most common words-so0 of them
| nosyllables-anu cover the entiie yocabu.
| larry OF the masses.
The bad results of this chaotic orthogrsphy
can hardly te overestimated. There Is first
the cost OF printing useless letters, amount.
| ing to hundreds of millions in a generation.
| Three volumes of the Encyclopedia Britain
1
| library OF Congress would, If the books were
| all in modern English, contain $4,000 vol.
| umes as the tombs of dead letters.
Then there is the cost of paying teachers
| for this extra drill work in reading and spell
ling which a rational system would make
| unnecessary, amounting to SIS 600, 600 year
| in this country alone.
The greatest loss, however, is in the time
spent in learning to read. An average OF
nearly three years might be saved in the
n al ha1 iona
system OF spelling. AS it is, it is q painful
drudgery, induces dislike of reading, and is q
dead weight upon the intelligence OF oul
masses.
Thirteen per cent OF our people above the
age OF ten years are unable to read at ali, and
much larger proportion of thos. who can read
cannot read with su fficent II uency and ease &c
make II a source OF pleasure and profit Then
there are the perverting effects on reason,
anu directly or indirectly on character.
The essayist then discussed the proposed
methods of reform in the alphabet, the lists o;
words whose spelling may be amended at
once under the sanction of the highest lin.
guistic authority of the English speaking
world, viz, the pathological associations OF
London and this country: the progress
thus far made and the plans for the future.
The announcement OF forthcoming quar-.
terly magazine to be the organ OF the reform
was received with special interest
The time honored objections to the move.
ment-such as the uDcouth appearance of
phonetic spelling, the fear that the derivation
OF words would be ooscured, were briefly
handled and the essay closed with a discus
sion OF the more serious hindrances.
There is q prevalent crudeness and ignor.
ance in the notions OF most people as to the
sounds in words Toe phonetic sense OF the
community is, so to speak, torpid. The plea
Tor the amendment OF spelling Is meaning.
less one to those who do not see that the
spelling is absurd. There could bs no better
preparation for q change than to give one
generation OF children thorough training in
the phonology OF the language.
There Is also tho stubbOrn inertia of habit.
Oar system may be bad, but il Is here, and
we have in measure mastered it. That
species OF conservatism is respectable
and furnishes perfectly valid reason
against change for those who are not
disposed to take an yone but themselves into
account But for those who are capable OF q
philanthropc Humanitarian view, there Is no
practicable movement OF recent times that has
on the ground OF its beneticence anythit z
like an equal claim to favor.
There Is no invention or tool or set Of tools
We use that can be com pared in vital import
ance to the devices by which we communi-
cate one with another. Says Pro-. March,
"Ihe difference between o family Who eau
read and one who cannot Is vastly more i'm.
portant than the difference between ia mily
that use railroads, telegrsphs and Telegram
and one that does not"
Tne eEnglishspeaking race communicates
tnOIo Auu nds more 70 communicate than
the rest Of mankind. The probable destiny
OF the English language is q thought that
should quicken our race spirit and our patri.
osic pride Aside from this one hindrance
the English has every advantage in the great
rivalry OF tongues. 1t Is the language OF
progress, OF intelligence and liberty its
vocabulary Is magnificent whether for sci
ence, for poetry or philosophy; its gram.
instical structure Is SO simple that is might
be the easiest language in the world to learn
but the eccentrctiea Of spelling present an
almost impossible barrier to Foreigners
Jsooo Grimm, the great 'linguistic genius,
q lew years ago congratulated the other
Europeans that the English had not made
the discovery that Whimsical antiqusted
orthography stood in the way OF the universal
acceptance OF their Ia guAge.
According to results carefully worked out
OF the statistics of nations, in two hundred
years, the Italian, Spanish, German and
French will altogether be spoken by 7ss OOO,.
600, while the English alone will be spok On
by !, ,s3', 900, 600. That represents, however,
merely the relative incr9ase OF population in
English speak ing lands The English itself
should widen the domain even more rapidly,
and would do SO II there were harmony be.
tween the written and spoken word.
The essay was followed by discu ssion
which developed strong sympathy with the
speaker in his portrayal OF the dreadful con.
dition OF our machinery for ex expressing words
by combining lettsrA Many strongly cen.
dorsed phonetic spelling and many, while
the urgent need OF reform, did not
see the way clear to II. Prof. o ven distribu.
ted altar ha toh,ta q ap,on ~.